Electricity Mayhem In Pakistan: No Hope
For An Immediate Silver Lining

17 May 2012

By Saeed Qureshi

Summer's scorching heat and acute power shortage have
both peaked in Pakistan. People are frantically
running helter-skelter as if the doomsday was at hand.
The hapless country is awash with panicked and
frenzied citizens driven out of their suffocating
dwellings to protest and vent their outrage about the
deepening calamity. It is unthinkable to live in a
modern age without fuel and modest comforts that come
from electricity.

Almost half of country's power generation capacity is
drastically dwindled. Of late it is estimated to be at
7200 MG. If electric power remains intact, the water
could reach the reservoirs, the overhead water tanks
and then to the consumers. With the steep shortfall of
electricity, the water scarcity too has assumed
monstrous proportions.

The taps in most of the urban houses have gone dry. As
such there is no water to take shower, to cook a meal,
prepare breakfast for the school going children and
working members of the family. The cloths and the
linen cannot be washed and the toilets remain unclean.

Those who exude their optimism in the glorious future
of Pakistan as a modern welfare state with robust
economy and well entrenched democratic system are
either in the habit of wishful thinking, suffer from
flawed vision or deliberately paint a rosy picture. If
from the functioning of the state institutions to the
availability of basic utilities is in tatters, only a
myopic person could afford the luxury of day- dreaming
of stable, ensured and prosperous destiny for
Pakistan.

The rental power units that were hired by the
incumbent government have been miserably non -starters
from the beginning. Most of contractors of these white
elephants units, pocketed huge amount of money in
advance and then went into a cozy slumber. They did
not bother to produce power for which they were
heftily paid. They failed to provide even a modicum of
relief to the load-shedding stricken people of
Pakistan.

The three nuclear power plants produce 2 per cent of
the whole generation of the electric power. The rest
is produced from the fossil fuels (65 %),
hydroelectric (33 %) and from coal (03%).In several
preceding decades, no new big dam has been
commissioned or constructed to beef up the power
generation. The two main dams namely Tarbela and
Tarbela, Ghazi Brotha hydel project and other small
dams produce 6500 MW electricity.

Pakistan's total installed capacity is around 20000
MW. According to a widely circulate report, "while the
peak need is Pakistan suffers from a massive
electricity shortage, electricity generation has
shrunk by up to 50% in recent years due to an
overreliance on Fossil Fuel".

In Pakistan the peak demand is 20584 MW, while the
power produced is nearly 15000 MW. But for the past
two years, the shortage has further soared because of
the low generation from the water dams and negligible
or insufficient output from the Rental power plants
and IPPs (independent power producers)

According to available statistics, the household
sector is the largest consumer of electricity
accounting for 44.2 per cent of total electricity
consumption, industries 31.1 per cent, agriculture
14.3 per cent, government sector 7.4 per cent,
commercial 5.5 per cent and street light 0.7 per cent.

The power shortage is causing crippling impact on
daily life of the citizens, on industry, agriculture
and overall economy. With the total or partial closure
of markets, business centers and industrial units, the
unemployment has increased by leaps and bounds. The
unemployment has led to poverty, gloom, and plummeting
standards of daily life.

There are 14 rental power plants (RPPs) mobilized to
generate 1500MW in order to partially offset the
overall power shortage. In addition there are 27 IPPs
to add 5305 MW to national grid by 2012. Had the RPPs
and IPPs played a fair game and fulfilled their
mandate, Pakistan would have been saved from the
colossal power outrage that it is now experiencing.
The induction of RPPs into Pakistan power grid carries
a pathetic story and stigma of huge kickbacks and
grafts by a former minister of power and other chips
of the same block.

The illustrious scientist of Pakistan, a true patriot
and Chairman of the Governing Board of Thar Coal
Project, Dr Samar Mubarikmand has said that in
Pakistan as much as 50000 MW electricity could be
generated per day through Thar Coal reserves. Pakistan
is blessed with coal deposits at Thar, Sindh, that are
estimated to be one of the largest in the world.

Dr Samar has made use of a technology called
"underground gasification technology" for converting
coal into gas without mining or quarrying. If his
claim is valid then not only Pakistan can be self
sufficient in electricity generation and consumption
but also be able to export it.

But there was stunning and flat refutation of Dr
Samar's claim from the member Planning Commission
Shahid Sattar who declared that the Thar coal power
generation project was impracticable. Shahid Sattar
said in an International Conference in Islamabad, that
while the project of power generation out of
gasification was impracticable, actual power
generation was possible only by coal-mining.

Expressing his apprehensions about the claims of Dr
Samar, the member maintained that the project of 10 MW
could not be carried on any further. Reinforcing his
stance, he said that a similar gasification project
being run in Australia is likely to be closed.

Now these are diametrically contradictory points of
view on generation of electricity in Pakistan. As to
who is right and who is not, cannot be ascertained by
a layman. In the meantime Dr. Samar on Sunday said
that four more coal wells had been set on fire and as
a result gas production from these would begin from
next week.

While talking exclusively to Geo News, he brushed
aside reports of the project being a failure as
invalid and wrong. He disclosed that "A flame will be
lit from gas as emission begins from these wells
towards the end of this month".In the wake of this
load-shedding cataclysm, President Zardari has called
for an emergency meeting of experts and government
functionaries to deliberate upon the chaotic
electricity shortage in Pakistan and to find ways and
means to stem this appalling situation that has turned
the life of the citizens into a nightmare and hellish.

Understandably, he was alarmed by the ultimatum of
Chaudhry Shujjat, the chief of PMLQ to the effect that
if the government fails to arrest the worsening power
outrage, his party would part company with the PPP
government. One would watch apprehensively and with
folded hands as to what miracle or panacea would be
hurled to alleviate the woes of the tormented
population in a short span of time when it was not
done for years. Visibly there is no hope for an
immediate silver lining.